The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) A/153 Mobile Handheld (M/H) standard is a terrestrial broadcast standard in North America (for an in-band mobile TV service) capable of providing terrestrial mobile digital television (MDTV) broadcast services simultaneously by inserting/transmitting a main service stream for an existing stationary DTV and a time-division mobile stream within a single RF 6 megahertz (MHz) channel. Here, the MDTV services utilize part of a bandwidth of 19.39 megabits per second (Mbps), which is an ATSC data transmission rate, and internet protocol (IP) datagram-based transmission technology, thereby providing mobile/portable TV viewers with broadcast services.
In detail, an entire broadcast frame of about 19.39 Mbps is transmitted via time division with an ATSC main broadcast stream (MPEG-2 TS) packet and an MDTV mobile stream packet (IP datagram), making it possible to provide two broadcast services, in an independent manner, simultaneously. A plurality of methods are available for providing a three-dimensional television (3DTV) service in such broadcast environments, for example, transmitting a stream of a reference image needed to compose a stereoscopic image, which is used for a stationary two-dimensional (2D) service, and a stream of a supplementary image used to compose a 3D image along with the reference image as independent streams to an ATSC main broadcast stream (MPEG-2 TS) packet. However, this method involves allocation of an additional band to transmit the supplementary image stream even though the reference image is transmitted through an ATSC main broadcast stream to secure reverse compatibility with an existing stationary 2D broadcast. Thus, it is necessary to reduce an amount of data transmitted for individual 2D screen information, resulting in deterioration in an existing 2D broadcast service.
To solve such a problem, stationary and mobile hybrid 3DTV technology which enables transmission of a supplementary image using a 2D mobile service stream instead of separately transmitting the supplementary image for composing a 3D image, has an advantage of providing a 3DTV service without allocation of an additional bandwidth for transmission of a supplementary image.
To realize a 3DTV system using an ATSC main reference image and an M/H supplementary image, a reception unit may need to receive a content stream associated with a reference image and a content stream associated with a supplementary image through an ATSC main channel and an M/H channel, respectively. However, since a conventional ATSC main broadcast and an M/H broadcast are independent broadcast types, identification and access methods with respect to a reference image and a supplementary image in each broadcast stream are needed.